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Ministers must give up their “astonishingly arrogant” control of Parliament to make it fit for the modern world, the Speaker of the Commons has warned.

John Bercow said that current parliamentary rules, timetables and conventions would have to be torn up to meet the demands of a 21st-century electorate. He also said that the practice of electing MPs to geographical constituencies would be “increasingly hard to sustain”.

The Speaker, who is meant to remain neutral on matters of policy, was immediately rebuked by a minister for overstepping the mark. Mr Bercow made the remarks during a speech to politicians in